


This Isn't What I Wanted

by foreverragehappy



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst, Comedy, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Joelay AU, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Sex, Swearing, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-08 15:34:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverragehappy/pseuds/foreverragehappy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray wasn’t anyone special. He had a normal job and led a normal life. But, unlike everyone else, he had a secret to hide. One that he had sworn he would never tell, at the cost of his life.</p><p>Joel was someone very special. However, this popularity forced him to stay undercover most of the time; rarely did he leave the underground tunnel systems that he had become accustomed to calling his home. He had become used to this sort of life, and had no complaints about the secrecy he was forced to maintain around others when he did go to the surface.<br/>That is, until the day he received his next mission.</p><p>That was when everything changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> \--- = POV Switch  
> *** = Time skip  
> Enjoy! This whole fic is already more or less written, just gotta actually get the words down on paper. My goal is to update it once or twice every week. Also, M rating isn't going to actually apply for a while.  
> Ps: Sorry if anything about Halo is inaccurate. I tried my best.

Ray plopped down on his couch, letting out a satisfied sigh as he settled down with a bottle of clear, fresh, delicious water in his hand. Nothing better than a good round of Halo with some pizza and tasty, non-sparkling water on the side to spend your Friday night. Said pizza box and glass of water had been previously set up on a small table next to his couch, providing the ultimate pizza night. And Ray absolutely loved it.

Maybe others would consider it a rather lonely way to spend his night, but he didn’t mind it much. He had never felt the need to find someone else to spend his all time with, when he had all the entertainment he could ever ask for right here, in the comfort of his own living room. All he needed was his Xbox, and maybe some online friends to play with. He had thought about looking for a girlfriend in the past, but after realizing he’d have to spend time away from his precious baby, he’d decided against it. He had all the reasons in the world to doubt that he’d have as much time to play video games, had he a girlfriend, than he currently did, after all. 

And thus he had concluded that he was happy with his life as a gamer, despite the loneliness that sometimes hit him in the mornings when he woke up alone, with no one lying next to him in bed. Or when he had to spend nights alone like this, when he knew people his age would normally be out partying and drinking their hearts out until the break of dawn. (He didn’t exactly drink so that wouldn’t have been an option anyways, but that’s beside the point.) Fortunately, it would always come to pass, so it was okay. He always told himself it would be okay, and eventually, it was. He loved his job at GameStop, albeit the annoying people that sometimes stopped by. His coworkers were also absolutely amazing, and he couldn’t ask for more from them. At least, most of them.

Everyone but the one with whom he shared a secret that they had both sworn to never reveal. 

They used to be best friends, but after the secret, he couldn’t stand to be around him anymore. The foreign feeling of his inability to predict his used-to-be best friend’s thoughts while the capability of doing so used to be second nature to him was unprecedented, to the point of making him go _mad_ , and the mere thought of being subjected to inspection by the one who used to be his best friend made him break out in cold sweat. Therefore, although unwillingly, he had more or less broken off their relationship after it happened. He knew that it was his fault, but he couldn’t help it. The situation had been so completely unfamiliar to him that he had panicked. He panicked, and ran.

What depressing thoughts for a Friday night.

Ray shook his head, mentally scolding himself for thinking about it again. He’d already established with himself that the past was the past, and that he should move on already. He _had_ to move on. 

Back to the pizza.

\---

A loud groan was heard throughout the room, followed by a soft thump as the man let himself fall onto the couch. 

It had been a long day. 

No amount of words could have expressed how happy he was to finally have finished this mission, and how glad he was that it had ended successfully. It could have easily been said to be one of the worst missions he’d ever been given, not for the fact that it required a high level of previous knowledge and experience, but for the fact that it had required an infinite amount of patience, which wasn’t exactly one of Joel’s flaunted abilities, if his mutters of ‘Gold stocks are gonna drop…need to get home to sell…’ during the mission were anything to go by.

However, the mission was finally over, and that meant a week of relaxation for him. 

Thoughts of spending peaceful afternoons in his small yet expensively decorated apartment, or more correctly mini underground house, floated through his mind as he took a sip of the beer in his hand. 

It was going to be a good week.

Starting with taking a nice, long nap after some good old booze. The man closed his eyes, letting himself sink against the tantalizingly soft fabric that made up his couch, bringing the bottle up to his mouth again.

***Two minutes later.***

Okay, so Joel wasn’t the best at sitting still. And he couldn’t fall asleep, so that only left one option. 

Sleeping pills.

Just kidding.

Xbox, of course.

He wasn’t crazy.

So, despite his exhausted state, which should have clearly warranted a week long nap, Joel stumbled to his feet and walked over to the TV to turn on his Xbox. As he dragged himself back to the couch, he noticed the game disk he had in was for Halo. While he wasn’t particularly keen to play on multiplayer at the moment, he was also very tired, and didn’t have the energy to pick himself up again and go change the disk. 

So Halo it was.

\---  
An empty box of pizza sat on the table, small oil stains visible on the cardboard. The glass of water that had previously accompanied it had been moved to its current position at Ray’s feet, where he could reach easily as he pummelled this poor player’s pride to bits. 

“Fucking fuck! Why are you so good at this game?!” Quickly came the irritated shout over his headphones as the other player went down, almost making Ray opt for wincing rather than laughing at whoever the sucker he was currently beating was. 

“You sure you’re not just bad?” He snickered in response, oddly enough serving to further anger the man as he heard a quiet growl, almost muted by the sound of guns firing. He’d almost thought this JoeAct player had disconnected when suddenly, he heard the sound of shooting coming from behind him. He quickly moved his player out of the way, laughing as he fired back at him. “You should get Joe-Act together, or I’m going to win again!”

“Haha, kid. Original. Shouldn’t you be watching your back too?” At his words, Ray quickly turning around, cursing under his breath when his character dropped dead. 

“Not bad.” He laughed into the microphone, watching his character respawn. “But don’t get cocky, I’m still ahead of you!”

He’d found this guy when he first started his game, and he wasn’t sure anymore how long they had been playing together. But he’d found him to be rather amusing, especially when losing. It almost made up for spending Friday night alone, especially when it was clear this other guy was home alone too. 

Either way, he was rather happy to have found him. He still had no idea what his name was – possibly Joe? – but he was already sure they could be great friends. He should ask to add him afterwards, he reminded himself as he took him down yet again. However, maybe said player wouldn’t be so keen, seeing how he had absolutely no chance against Ray. Never hurt to try though.

***

After some frustrated shouting and more heartless taunting, Ray was ready to turn in for the night. His glass of water was long gone, both from the laughing too much at JoeAct’s amazing ability to get angry then recompose himself so quickly¸ and from accidentally knocking it over when he had managed to catch him off guard behind a wall. Either way, it had definitely been an enjoyable night. He wouldn’t have been exaggerating if he said that it was one of the best nights of his life. He was definitely going to play with him again. 

“Yo, add me?” he said in between matches, glancing at the namertag.

“What, just so you can kick my ass? No way, kid.” Ray pouted disappointedly, staring at the empty spot that used to be taken up by JoeAct. However, almost immediately afterwards, he saw a friend request popping up with said name written inside. 

Shaking his head and letting out a chuckle, he clicked accept. 

How childish of Joe.


	2. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m not sure if you go in uniform or get changed once you’re there, so ignore that discrepancy if it isn’t what actually happens.
> 
> \--- = POV Switch  
> *** = Time skip

He stood frozen, staring at the scene in front of him. Panic slowly crept up his spine, turning his quick pants into ragged gasps. As he staggered backwards, the back of his shoe a rock, making him stumble. The sound of the rock rolling away pierced the silence that had reigned the room, the noise bouncing off the walls of the large, empty space. As he desperately tried to grasp at the situation, there was only one clear question in his mind. _Why?_

Ray woke up with a gasp, eyes snapping open to darkness. It took him a few moments before he was able to sit up, keeping a hand on his chest as he slowly tried to calm his racing heart. He was drenched from head to toe in cold sweat, but he could take care of that later with a quick shower. Regaining control of his seized muscles was more important at the moment.

Once he was finally calm enough to function, he pushed himself up, turning the lights on with a groan. He had been hoping those nightmares wouldn’t come back to haunt him. What was done was done, and he’d made it clear to himself that he wasn’t going to dwell on what had happened. Either way, nothing to do but to ignore it for now. He wasn’t going to let this hold him back from living his life. He had done what needed to be done, and that was that. It was too late for regrets. Much too late.

Pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, he headed groggily to the bathroom. Now, for that shower he’d mentioned.

***

As he stepped out of the shower, thoughts of that guy he’d met on Halo the other day floated around his mind. He seemed like a pretty nice guy, even if he did get mad at Ray every time he killed him. The thought made him chuckle. Of course, he couldn’t exactly blame him for it, as he’d probably have reacted the same way. But behind all the angry sighs, unintelligible sentences, and clever tricks, he felt like he was a pretty nice guy. After having played with him for a good portion of the weekend, he had learned a good bit about his video gaming skills, and was very eager to play with him again.

Either way, that was for whenever he’d be free again. Which happened to be that night, actually, after work.

He quickly pulled on some shorts and a random t-shirt before heading out to the GameStop down the street.

***

As he walked in through the large doors to the heavily air conditioned area, he heard a couple of his friends calling out to him.

“Hey, morning! Had a good weekend?” That was Lindsay, the store manager with the obsession with cats. Cats aside, Ray had gained much respect for her after seeing her skills in both gaming and store managing alike. She was a nice gal, but definitely firm enough when she needed to be. Everyone was always productive and kept very much in place in this store thanks to her sometimes scary attention to detail.

“Hey Linds, and ya, I did! Just played Halo with some random dude on live.” He answered, walking to the back room. “And you? I hope you didn’t have too much fun without me.” Lindsay laughed.

“I had a horrible weekend. Because I never got to see you, Ray.” She teased, opening a box of games that had just been shipped in.

“Hey, can’t blame me for being busy with very important matters, aka playing video games.”

“Ya, ya, just go get your uniform on. We’ve got to get these up on the shelves before people start coming in.” Ray complied with a chuckle, closing the door behind him.

“Hey, Ray!” That was Gavin, his very energetic co-worker. Ray waved to him as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“Hey, did you hear? Apparently your best friend, you know, that new bloke, he hasn’t been showing up recently. Did something happen to him?” Gavin asked with curious eyes, looking up from the used console they had just received.

Ray grunted, pulling his shirt over his head. His best friend…Michael? He…He hadn’t been showing up lately, huh.

“No, I don’t know. I haven’t heard from him in a while.” He shrugged, readjusting his glasses. “Have you tried calling him?” He headed out into the front, ready to help Lindsay out with the new games.

“I have! And he hasn’t answered… I wonder if something happened to him?” Ray glanced at the Brit, offering another shrug in response. He had a slight idea of what had happened, but wasn’t about to say a word of it.

“I’ll try calling him later. Maybe he’s just busy with some family stuff?” Ray offered, picking up an unpacked box. Gavin seemed unsatisfied by his answer, but didn’t insist any further.

***

The rest of the day was rather unexciting. The games were unpacked, the shelves stocked, the customers served. Ray dropped his phone and keys on the counter as he walked into his apartment, hopping onto his couch. Time for some gaming.

He started up his Xbox, leaning forward in anticipation as he waited for his console to start up. He debated playing some more Halo, wondering if the Joe guy would be online. After checking his friends list and noting that he was definitely not online, he turned back to his selection of single player games, taking out Dead Rising 3. Might as well complete that.

As he started up the game, he couldn’t deny a twinge of sadness that rose inside of him. It would have been fun to play with the Joe guy again. He seemed like a nice dude. But he probably had a life too, so Ray shrugged it off and set off to mow down the however many thousand zombies he had left to kill.

\---

Joel dropped down onto his couch, tugging off his tie. Today had been absolutely exhausting. The only thing that currently kept him from collapsing onto the ground was his couch. His only solace was the fact that he could now relax and play some video games, after a long day’s work.

It had actually been a short mission, for once. Simply go in, arrest the target, get out. Everything had been planned beforehand and everything went as smoothly as it could have. There were a few minor accidents, but nothing big enough to affect the mission. One of those errors may have ended in them having to dash for their lives when the security system was suddenly triggered, but thankfully, their hacker had managed to infiltrate their security milliseconds after the alarm went off.

Either way, it had been a successful mission, which meant Joel was given a few more days off before his next mission. He was definitely looking forward to playing some more Halo with the kid he’d met on live. He refused to admit that whoever this stranger was was better at gaming than he was, and was very much looking forward to an opportunity to prove this fact. If he was trained to do these kind of things in real life, how could he let himself be beat by some random kid in this virtual world?

However, just as he reached for his controller, his arms began to feel heavy. He’d overworked his muscles all day, piled with the stress that came as a package deal with this job, and the exertion was beginning to catch up with him. Opting for a quick nap instead, he settled down on his couch and closed his eyes, immediately falling asleep.


	3. The Story Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Wow I did not update this for a while. Welp, here you go! Sorry for the short chapter. As usual, ignore than discrepancies between real office meetings and this one.
> 
> As usual,  
> \--- = POV switch  
> *** = Time Skip

Joel. That was his name. Ray had asked him for it after a random match, deciding that continuing to refer to him using stupid puns was quickly becoming taxing on his pun-making abilities. He’d given him his own in return, though all that led to were more puns on Joel’s part on the subject of sunny rays, or something along those lines.

And so their video game shenanigans continued, the only change being the way they called each other. Joel introduced him to his maniacally organized city in Minecraft, leaving Ray speechless for once with its intricacy and the sheer thought of the amount of time that must have gone into its creation. Ray, on the other hand, only needed to lead Joel to his profile to show off his dedication to video games and not going outside. 

A month or so passed by quite uneventfully. They continued with their lives as usual, with no particular incidents interrupting their daily routines. 

That is, until one particular Sunday morning.

Ray woke up to loud noises in the hall with a start. 

“The fuck are they doing…?” he grumbled in a disgruntled tone, irritated that his very few hours of sleep had been interrupted. 

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he dragged himself out of bed, not forgetting to grab his phone from its charger as he stumbled sleepily to his front door. He peeked through the small hole, squinting as he realized he’d forgotten his glasses. Either way, he couldn’t make out any shapes to be the source of the noise, and so, with another annoyed shrug, returned to bed to catch up on his sleep. 

***

Two hours later, now properly awake, clean, and dressed, Ray plopped himself down in front of his television, ready to start another day of gaming. He opened his phone to twitter as he waited for a game to start up, casually scrolling through his feed. He paused when he saw some messages from a couple of his friends, tapping on the envelope icon. He stiffened slightly upon seeing the contents.

‘dude did you hear they found a dead dude in your building yesterday night?’

‘Ray! Is it true? Did they really find a corpse in your building?’

Dozens of messages and a slight frown later, Ray decided to toss his phone, now on silent, to the other couch. Pushing the subject of the message to the back of his mind with a shrug, he picked up his controller to start the game. Had anyone else been in the room with him, they would easily have noticed the stiffness in his limbs as his thumbs pressed on the buttons of his controller, keeping him from doing as well as he usually did.

He knew it wasn’t that big of a deal. This kind of thing happened all the time – they find out someone’s been dead in the building for a long ass time and had already started to rot or something before they actually found out about it. Still, he couldn’t keep himself from gnawing at his lip in between matches or pressing down just a bit too hard on the triggers as worry ate at him.  
“Just stop thinking about it.” He muttered to himself, narrowing his eyes as he immersed himself completely in shooting zombies, pushing away the pesky thoughts clawing at the edge of his mind.

_Stop thinking about it._

\---

With a new tie and a huge mug of coffee, Joel was refreshed and ready for the newest mission. He gave a slight nod to one of his coworkers as he passed by, eyes carefully scoping out the right room down the long hallway. 

“1104.” He muttered to himself, watching 1100 go by to his right. That should mean… “Next, next left.”

This type of meeting wasn’t unusual. This type of case wasn’t unusual either. In fact, he was fairly sure the case would be over and done with within the week.

He put his hand to the scanner next to the door, taking a sip from his coffee as it slid open after a quiet beep. Inside the futuristic white room sat a simple, large, round, black table with three occupants in three of its cardinal directions. Joel took the seat to the East, clearing his throat as he leaned back in the rather uncomfortably hard chair. 

Hopefully this meeting wouldn’t last too long; Joel never did like the weird chairs they had in these rooms.

“I believe you all know why you were called here.” The man at the far end started, taking out a small file. “There was a small incident at a hotel this week, and although it wasn’t anyone of huge importance, the police have yet to find a lead on this case.” He paused, turning to Joel. “I called you here today to inform you that we have officially decided to step in. This doesn’t appear to be the work of an expert, but I don’t want to run any risks. Joel, you and Burnie are to find out exactly what happened to the John Doe, as quickly as possible. If this is the work of a serial killer, we need to track him down and contain the situation immediately. Is that understood?”

Joel nodded in acknowledgement, sparing a glance at his partner on this case to see him do the same. 

“Good. You will both begin investigating immediately. Kara will provide you with any data or information you require. I wish you luck.” With that, the man stood up and took his leave.

Joel sighed when he finally left, leaning back in his seat. 

“Well, you ready to catch a murderer?” He turned to look at Burnie, snickering at the feigned excitement in his voice.

“It’s just tracking someone down. We’ve done this a million times.

“It’ll be a piece of cake.”


End file.
